Cost of Being Armed

There is no price that one can put on their life, and therefore their safety. But that being said, it’s not cheap. The cost being armed adds up, and many don’t calculate the cost prior to beginning. This can leave you struggling with bills, and still not able to legally carry your firearm. Let’s take a look at a modest estimate of the costs involved in getting armed.

The first step should be to train. This doesn’t mean that you have to become an expert, but only that you fire enough rounds through enough firearms to be able to determine what gun is right for you. While there are practical considerations, this is also going to be a matter of taste, or comfort. But if you don’t have friends with an array of firearms for you to try, you are going to have to rent them, and the lanes, and buy ammo, and probably at least a few hours of instruction. On the low end this could cost you $285.

Next, and most important is purchasing your firearm. Staying in the mid-range, which is where I would recommend every beginner look, pistols from manufacturers like Glock, S&W, or Ruger that are manufactured for concealment are going to cost you between $300 and $600. Let’s split the difference and go with $450 which is about what my G43 cost me.

After you have your firearm, you will want to put some rounds through it to gain comfort, efficiency, and skill. Unless you have a friend with a backyard range that can give you free instruction this will cost you between $200 and $400. We’ll call it $200 to stay on the low end.

At this point, you only have a nightstand pistol and some experience. To carry it legally (in most places, some people are lucky enough to have constitutional carry) you will still need to take a concealed handgun course, and pay application fees. This will probably cost you about $225, that’s what it cost me.

Then you need a holster. If you go with a mid-range clipless pocket/waistband holster, which is about as cheap as you are going to be able to go without sacrificing safety, you will be paying about $35. That’s a lot cheaper than getting a gun belt or a corset holster.

Lastly you will want at the very least a box of ammo on reserve. That’s going to run you about $25 for quality ammo depending on your caliber. Don’t go cheap on defensive ammo.

So, without extra magazines, magazine extensions, expensive holsters, hours of instruction, or any “extras”, it is going to cost you about $1,220 to become armed. And that’s a modest estimate.

This isn’t in anyway meant to discourage anyone from pursuing arming themselves. This is only meant to give an idea of what it will actually require in terms of finances so that you can properly plan. Anything worth doing is worth doing right.